tl8 Retrospective Criticism. 



Mr. Bree says they are doubtless mere varieties of one and the same species ; 

 which I believe is the case. I have lately devoted much of my spare time 

 to searching out the beauties of Flora, and I find it a very amusing and 

 instructive employment. A few days ago I found a variety of ^etonica 

 officinalis with white flowers. I do not see it mentioned in your Hortus 

 Biitdnnicus. Is it generally known that there is such a plant ? — G. J. P. 

 July 15. 1831. [Yes. See Smith's English Flora, vol. iii. p. 97. — J'. J).] 



The conductor's Hortus Britdnnicus exhibits eight varieties of ^rica vul- 

 garis, three of E. Tetralix, five of ^. cinerea, and three of E. vagans ; that 

 is, I'eckoning in each case the species itself, as it is called, as one variety. 

 Mr. Bree, in his enumeration of the species (p. 379, 380.), also adverts to 

 some of these varieties, and mentions a pale-flowered and a purplish- 

 flowered variety of E. vagans. As both these are additional to the nine- 

 teen varieties quoted above from Hortus Britdnnicus, they, with these nine- 

 teen, and E. ciliaris and E. mediterranea, the two species recently added 

 to the British flora, render our British heaths twenty-three in number. 



The plant called Menziesza j^jolifolia, or Irish heath, is probably neither a 

 Menzies/a nor an £'rica, although it has, in its time, with the Scottish spe- 

 cies, M. c^rulea, been associated with both genera. The type of the genus 

 Menziesta is M.ferruginea ; this, with another genuine species, M. globularis, 

 is from North America, and both are so dissimilar to M. polifolia and M. 

 cEerulea in habit, and, I believe, in the structure of the seeds also, that the 

 latter cannot, in these days of botanic reformation, long remain associated 

 with the former. Of M.^olifolia, as it must at present be called, there are 

 six varieties ; one of which, called nana, is not rare in the nurseries (at ■ 

 Mr. Knight's for one), and is highly curious from its snug tufted habit. — 

 J.D. 



Wintering Vines grown under the Rafters in Pineries. — Sir, I noticed in your 

 last two Numbers (p. 412. and 539.) a mode for wintering the vines grown 

 under the rafters in pineries ,■ and as it seems to be sent forth as something 

 new [not as new, but as being well worthy particular commendation and 

 adoption], I think it proper to inform you that it has been practised for a 

 number of years in old-constructed houses, where the front sashes run in 

 a slide, by Mr. Tinker, gardener to Sir John Ramsden, Bart., of Byram, in 

 Yorkshire. Mr. Tinker turns down the vines, when he thinks it proper to 

 do so J ties them as close as possible to the front j takes the front sashes and 

 sets them on the front flue, raising them to their usual height with bricks, or 

 any other material that may offer itself, making all vacancies air-tight with 

 boards. and moss. I am. Sir, yours, &c. — John Pearson. Kinlet Gardens, 

 near Bewdley, Sept. 2. 1831. 



The Impregnation of Ciicumis satlvus hy the Maltese Melon. — Sir, The 

 attainment of truth, and not the support of any peculiar or favourite theory, 

 being ever the object to which my endeavours point, I am anxious to know 

 from Mr. Oliver the result of his experience on the impregnation of the 

 Cucumis sativus by the Maltese melon, as alluded to by your correspond- 

 ent P. Lauder (p. 622.) ; to whom my thanks are due, not only for again 

 adverting to the subject, but also for the complimentary manner in which 

 he has mentioned my former communication. 



Of course, I cannot be expected to relinquish, without some further evi- 

 dence to warrant it, my opinion, adopted after mature consideration, and 

 supported by a series of careful experiments (though these are but negative 

 proofs, I admit) ; the conclusion arrived at being, moreover, in opposition 

 both to my preconceived ideas and sanguine anticipations, and we being 

 but too ready to credit that which we wish. Believing, in the outset of my 

 experiments, that such fecundations were not only practicable, but even to 

 be avoided with difficulty, and supported in that belief by every book on 

 the subject of gardening which I consulted, I commenced with an undoubt- 

 ing impression that, by continually crossing and recrossing between the 



